Position battles have highlighted New Orleans Saints training camp

Oxnard, Calif. -- One of the position battles going on during New Orleans Saints training camp is at outside linebacker, where Scott Shanle and Jonathan Casillas are at weakside and Will Herring, Clint Ingram and Martez Wilson at strong.

Securely positioned is the man in the middle, Jonathan Vilma, who said the battle has been good for the defense.

John McCusker/The Times-PicayuneNew Orleans Saints linebacker Jonathan Casillas is working at weakside linebacker with Scott Shanle.

"I think it has been very healthy and very competitive," he said. "I think on both sides you have tremendous athletes that are playing well. That is all part of competition. That is probably a good thing right now. We have good athletes that can go out there and make plays. We are fortunate to have a good competition going."

Tackle depth at issue

At defensive tackle, some injuries -- to Tom Johnson and Aubrayo Franklin -- have caused the position from being pretty deep to possibly thin.

"We just have to be careful about our reps in practice," said coach Sean Payton. "Instead of three sets of five having 15 plays we might be working two sets of five for 10 total plays with the second wave.

"As quickly as we can get Tom and Aubrayo back that will give us more depth. In the meantime, we just have to be able to handle it. It's one of the things that typically come up in camp but we just don't know the position."

Competition at fullback going strong

With the team not re-signing Heath Evans -- and his subsequent retirement and taking a job with NFL Network -- the team has looked to one of a couple guys getting the fullback job.

Battling it out there is Jed Collins and Korey Hall, and both have had a good camp, making the decision on who stays a difficult one for the team.

"Both Jed and Korey played well on Saturday. I thought they both blocked well in the running game," Payton said. "Korey was really good in the kicking game. That's a good competition going right there with those two players and both of them are having a good camp.

"We felt like it was going to be Jed and another player competing. I think as the season went on last year and as he was on the practice squad, he did some real good things against our defense. We began to see someone who was physical and that was encouraging. That has continued. His growth has been right in front of us and he has done well."